Achievement Hunter
by Orpheus Kidwell
Summary: Gamer!Naruto story with a unique twist: All of the features are locked behind hidden achievements. Starts during the Graduation Exam.
1. Chapter I: Third Time's the Charm

**Achievement Hunter**

**Hey there! So, looks like I finally get an opportunity to delve back into the Elemental Nations. My muse with pure Naruto stories has been considerably lacking as of late, but finally found it. This idea is... uh... considerably old. I think it might even have been a whole year since I wrote the first half of this. Either way, here we are!**

**Oh, and I'd really like to thank Mysty over on my Discord server for the cover of this story as well. She drew it back when I first had the idea and it was probably one of the big reasons I actually got motivated to finish this chapter. Finally, I get to have a cover for one of my stories that's actually been drawn specifically for me!  
**

**Chapter I: Third Time's the Charm**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All rights go to the respective owners. Please support the official release.**

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but if you can't even make a Clone properly… there's no way that you can pass this year." Uzumaki Naruto looked at his two sensei, then at the sickly looking versions of himself that exploded as soon as he glanced at them, as if to further rub salt in the wound. He was going to speak, to reply, to _argue _but something stopped him. Rather… should he say that everything stopped besides him?

Iruka and Mizuki seemed to be stuck in place, while the two clouds of smoke behind him remained still, not dispersing, not enlarging. He looked around, but could find no explanation to what was going on until he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye. Turning to face it, he found himself face-to-face with… that was a woman, right?

"Achievement Earned: **[Third Time's the Charm… Or Not]** for failing the Shinobi Academy three times in a row. System Unlocked: **[Save Slot 1]**, **[Load Slot 1]**." The woman, if she could be called that, appeared to be about the same height and build as Ayame-nee. She had dark green hair highlighted with streaks of a lighter green tied up in a ball behind her head, with a long ponytail emerging from that down to her waist and her hair coming down to just above her shoulder on the sides. Her eyes were strange, with green sclera and black irides that bled into the pupils as if the two were one. Even stranger was her 'skin', which appeared more like steel than flesh. It was a bright grey that gleamed in the sun, strange black markings over parts of it that were exposed which looked a bit like circuitry.

The strange woman was wearing a sleeveless top and short skirt, both of which were black with a dark green stripe down either side and two light grey stripes running alongside each of those. From under her skirt, a pair of long, green socks ran down her legs, disappearing into a pair of heeled, knee-high boots. The boots themselves were some sort of light grayish color with a stripe of light green running up both sides of her legs. Green gloves extended from her fingertips all the way up to her elbows and there were seven green rings that looked like bracelets levitating just a few centimeters from her skin around her neck, wrists, ankles and lower biceps.

"Um… what? Who are you?" The woman looked at him blankly as her eyes seemed to gleam a little.

"I am the avatar of the System with which you can communicate." She stated emotionlessly, just like before. There was no further commentary on her existence or its purpose though, so Naruto decided to find out more.

"What do you mean System? System of what?" The woman paused a moment before responding.

"The System is a network of synthesized and natural processes overlayed on your world which allow you, the Player, to affect, interact and interface with aspects of reality that non-Players are unable to. In the occurrence of gaining access to new abilities or new aspects of abilities, or earning achievements, which will unlock new abilities or new tiers to existing abilities, I will show up to tell you and give a short tutorial on how they function in relation to your world and any interactions they might have with other abilities you currently have unlocked. Would you like to begin the tutorial?"

As System finished her mini-lecture, Naruto jumped back as a large… he wasn't sure what it was. It seemed to be a large screen not unlike his TV, except flat and mildly translucent. On it, a series of words appeared. _Would you like to begin the tutorial on save states? _**[Yes] [No]** The options were situated on the bottom of the… screen, on the left and the right. "What's a tutorial?" He asked System for clarification.

"It is a short lesson on how an aspect of the System works, allowing you to gain a quick and mild grasp on vague concepts but giving you the chance to learn most of it on your own." Naruto liked the sound of that! Just something short to tell him the basics where he could figure out everything else? That was much better than what he had at the Academy. He hesitantly – as he didn't know what would actually happen – began moving his index finger towards the _Yes _option and was surprised when he touched what felt like a solid object. The button lit up as his finger pressed down on it, but it was only after he lifted his finger that the screen disappeared. As it did, System's eyes seemed to shine again before she talked.

"Save states, unlocked via your Achievement **[Third Time's the Charm… Or Not]**, are a simple concept. By using the verbal command of '_Save_' or using the pause menu function to manually save, you can create a copy of the world-state as it exists in space-time that can be traveled back to at a later date. The verbal command '_Load_' or the pause menu's option of Load State can be used to transport your consciousness back to the previous world-state with all of the memories gained by the Player prior to Loading. In the unfortunate circumstance of a Game Over, you will automatically be Loaded back to your most recent Save State. For now, you only retain one Save State, but future achievements will unlock further Save States which may be stored independently of one another. The System has, by default, created a point in Space-Time for your Save State beginning twenty-four hours ago so that you may see how a Loaded State functions for yourself. As you do not yet have access to the pause menu, please give the command '_Load State 1_' so that the tutorial may continue."

Naruto hesitantly nodded. He wasn't sure he understood everything that System had told him, but if what he _did _understand was true, it wasn't too hard. Basically he could create checkpoints to go back to, like in Super Jumpman World, one of the only video games he actually played before. However, while in Jumpman the character had to find and jump through the checkpoints himself, Naruto could make checkpoints wherever he wanted and go back to them whenever he wanted. "Load State 1?" He stated not very confidently.

To Naruto, the entire world shifted, yet it seemed to remain still at the same time. Instead of standing in front of two exploding clones and before Iruka and Mizuki, he was in his apartment, surrounded by paint cans, a harness and other things that he would use to paint the Hokage Monument the morning of the Exam. The world still wasn't moving and System was still in front of him. He couldn't help but grin. He could use this to pass the Exam! "I can come back to this save state however many times I want, right, System?"

"That is correct. You may reload this world-state infinitely with no ill-effects on the space-time continuum. You will retain your knowledge, but not things such as muscle mass increase, food or new objects. Any items you gain after this point in space-time will disappear from your inventory, which you will unlock later, but any damage to your body will also disappear. Your chakra reserves will return to their previous level when you saved. Chakra control will, however, remain if trained due to it being more psychological than biological.

"Whenever you save or load, the world will auto-pause, and you may manually pause the world-state as well. While the world is paused, you must remain stationary, though you may speak and look around to some degree. When you wish to continue playing, you may use the verbal command '_Unpause_' or, once you unlock the interface for the pause menu, select the 'Return to Game' function. I will only appear when you pause the world. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me that way. You may begin when ready."

Naruto couldn't help from his grin widening. He would use this to do whatever he needed to prepare for the Exam! "Unpause!" He couldn't help but shout and watched as his clock began to tick once more. Ignoring his prank supplies, he brought his hands together into a ram seal. It was time to get that Clone down!

**[][][]**

Naruto had long since lost track of exactly how many days it had been, of how many times he'd taken and failed the Entrance Exam. Was it ten? Fifteen? _Fifty?_ He wasn't sure, but he did know one thing. There was no way he wasn't going to pass it. Even if he went insane, he would make sure he could pass!

With the way things were going, that might be what it took though. He really had no idea how long it had been, nor was he seeing any tangible results that would point to him making much progress. After the first week of getting the same results, he had even begun searching out ways to get around the Clone requirement.

By studying for the Written Exam, he'd at least managed to barely pass that somewhat reliably and consistently. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough.

24 hour intervals didn't seem like enough to really get better at fighting for the sparring portion of the Graduation Exam, so all he could do was try and get a handle on how his teachers fought. He was certainly able to see through some of Mizuki-sensei's moves, but being able to react fast enough to do anything was another matter altogether.

On the plus side, he was getting really good at the shurikenjutsu part of the Exam. He didn't really even need to train for that. Doing the Exam so many times was helping him understand how to properly use shuriken more than classes ever had.

Still, it all really came down to the spar or the Clone. He'd have to either beat Mizuki-sensei or get the Clone down if he really wanted to pass and graduate. Day by day, it was looking more like an impossible task. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just make one _single fucking Clone _that wasn't a sick mess?

There had to be something he was missing, right? What could it possibly be though? Maybe jiji could help him. He'd done everything else up until now on his own, but maybe he really would need to get some help. This was no time to let pride get in the way. His hat and robes were at stake!

So, the blonde uttered the familiar words. "Load Slot 1." As he did so, the world shifted in a way that was becoming commonplace for him. He looked around his room, seeing the state of disarray preparing for one of his pranks often left it in. He'd clean it later. No use in wasting the time when next time he loaded it would just end up the same again.

Heading outside, he began hopping across the rooftops until he could see the Hokage Tower. There was little reason to actually use the front door. The secretary would just stall him and waste his time. Instead, he eyed the window that led to the Hokage's office. With practiced ease, the blonde got to the windowsill and climbed inside.

Hiruzen was right there, sitting in his seat and doing paperwork. "Good morning, Naruto." He stated without looking up. "Are you getting up to trouble again?" You know, he should have seen that coming. If he didn't have his save slot, then he would be working on his glorious painting across the Hokage Monument, after all.

"No way, jiji! I'm training for the Graduation Exam tomorrow!" Hiruzen looked up from his work to regard the boy with a smile.

"Oh? Is that how it is then? What brings you all the way over here then? Come to ask an old man for help with something last minute?" He nodded several times. "Well, I was about to take a break anyways." With that, the Hokage rose from his chair and regarded the boy, who was sitting on the floor near the window. "What is it that you needed?"

"I'm having trouble with the Clone Jutsu, jiji." Naruto admitted. "They always come out like… uh… well… I'll just show you." With that, Naruto formed a ram seal and two of his sickly Clones appeared in the room.

The Hokage regarded the Clones with an inquisitive gaze. After a moment, his eyes lit up with realization. Instead of smiling, however, Hiruzen frowned. "I see. I know what the issue here is. Your clones are being filled with too much chakra to remain stable. I'm not sure that there is enough time before your Exam to fix this though. Chakra control is a skill that has to be fine-tuned over months, if not years."

_Years? _He would have to keep living out the same day for years to get his control good enough to pass the Exam? That was ridiculous! If that's what it took though… then he would make sure he could graduate! "However, there might be an alternative we could try."

Those words caught Naruto's attention just before he was about to reload. "There's something else I can do that won't take as long?" He wondered. Shortcuts weren't usually his style, but it's not like Clones were that useful anyways. When he became a Genin, he'd be able to get some really cool ninjutsu, after all!

"There is… something that you might be uniquely suited to using." Hiruzen explained. "However, it is quite dangerous, so you must not teach it to anyone. If someone tries to use it without having enough chakra, they could very well die. It is another type of Clone, and should be acceptable for the Graduation Exam. One Clone jutsu is just as good as another as far as the test is concerned, after all."

"Wait, is it a super-awesome and powerful ninjutsu?" Naruto wondered. When Hiruzen nodded, the Uzumaki boy grinned wide and stood up. "I'll definitely master it before the Exam then! Believe it!" With a smile, Hiruzen ruffled the boy's spikes and glanced around the room. It might be better to go somewhere else for this.

When Hiruzen placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder, he wasn't sure what to expect. As the two of them disappeared in a vortex of wind, dust and leaves he realized that that certainly wasn't it. He didn't know where they ended up, only that he immediately dropped to his hands and knees and nearly vomited up his breakfast.

Wait a second. What had he had for breakfast? It had been so long he couldn't even remember. Oh well, it wasn't that important. He found his footing once more and noted that they were in the middle of a forest somewhere. He didn't really recognize this place though. "Are we in one of the Training Grounds?" He wondered.

"That's right. I think that teaching you something like this in that little office might be a bad idea. An old man needs to get out of the village proper and breathe in this nice, forest air as well. There's only one handseal for this one, but it's not one that you're likely to have ever seen before."

To emphasize the point, the Third Hokage held the first two fingers of his right hand out, pointing straight up. The first two fingers of his left hand were also extended, but crossed perpendicularly across and in front of his right ones. "This was a technique made by the Second Hokage himself, and creates solid clones out of your chakra."

"What do you mean by solid Clones?" Naruto wondered. "Like… these Clones can actually fight instead of just being illusions?" The old man nodded and his student's smile grew even more. "That's awesome!"

Quickly, he matched the handseal that Sarutobi made and listened to his instructions on how to mold his chakra properly. Finally, after Hiruzen was sure that all of the preparations had been made, he told Naruto the name of the technique and had him try it. Given control was not Naruto's strong suit, his instructions were to put as much of his chakra as he felt comfortable doing into the technique.

"**Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" **Naruto called out as he released the pent-up chakra inside of himself. Hiruzen had some idea that the forest would be filled with smoke and more Narutos, but even he had not been prepared for exactly the number. For a moment, he had to close his eyes from all the smoke that was generated. When it finally cleared, however, there was not a single direction – including up – in which he looked that an ear-to-ear grinning blonde was not visible. This wasn't just in the direct vicinity either, but as far as his aging vision could perceive.

"Did I do it right, jiji?" A thousand Naruto asked in unison. The sheer number of them made what was likely a very reasonable tone sound like a shout coming from every direction. The realization of what he had done in a moment of sympathy for his favored shinobi-in-training seemed to only hit the man just then. One Naruto was bad enough, so what would happen now that there were a thousand of him? He may very well have doomed the village.

"Please do not speak all at once." He asked with a calm he himself was not sure he actually felt. "I'm very impressed that you got it down on your first try. The technique itself actually takes care of a lot of the work, though. The amount of chakra you put into it actually translates into the number of clones that come back out." When it looked like Naruto was going to speak again, Hiruzen interrupted. "Please form a handseal and release them. Just the original Naruto. I would rather I did not get a headache on my break."

A thousand Naruto once more acted in unison, rubbing the backs of their heads with a sheepish grin. The original released them back into smoke before apologizing. "How does the jutsu do the work though, jiji?" He wondered.

"Well, let's say that every Clone has a chakra cost." He said. The explanation he was going to give suddenly seemed a bit too complex for Naruto to understand though. How could he simplify it? _Ah, I know how. _"Let's say each Naruto needs a ramen cup's worth of chakra to be made. And let's also say that the technique itself costs a ramen cup's worth of chakra just to use.

"After taking the first cup out, to use it, all of the remaining chakra is then divvied up and forms the Clones on its own. However, this is the weakest form of the Shadow Clone Jutsu. When you get better chakra control, you can actually overfill a Clone with chakra for various purposes. With just the basic technique, a Clone will be destroyed with a strong enough punch. However, when you get to the point you can choose how much chakra goes into each Clone, then they might be able to take almost as many hits as you.

"An even further use of the technique is to overfill a Shadow Clone with so much chakra it becomes unstable. If you do that, then the Clones will actually explode when something hits them and potentially kill an opponent that you're fighting.

"On the other end of the spectrum though, if you get your control of both the technique and your own chakra fine enough, you can Clone inanimate objects, like shuriken and kunai, to multiply the number of projectiles you throw at an opponent. It is quite a diverse technique, honestly. Each user of it that I know of has added new uses to it, so I'm sure that you'll be able to do the same."

Naruto widened his eyes as he realized what was being told to him. Jiji was trusting him to make this jutsu even better than it already was. It was created by a Hokage, and he wasn't allowed to teach anyone. It was probably some super-secret jutsu that only the Hokage and their successors were supposed to know! "Don't worry, Hokage-jiji, I won't let you down!"

With a chuckle, Hiruzen ruffled the boy's spikes once more. "Keep that a surprise for Iruka and Mizuki tomorrow, alright? I'm looking forward to hearing about your graduation. I know you'll do well."

**And that's it!**

**It's not much, but it is just the first chapter. A couple of minor differences here and there, but it'll be the start to something interesting, I hope. Let me know your thoughts through a review, via a PM or over on the Discord server at Discord-dot-gg-slash-PWDD44v**

**Also, I have a pat-reon now. If you're interested in supporting me, check it out over at pat-reon-dot-com-slash-orpheuskidwell**

**Orpheus out! Ja ne!**


	2. Chapter II: First Step

**Achievement Hunter**

**Chapter II: First Step**

When Naruto arrived at the Konohagakure Shinobi Academy, he was filled with a surge of confidence at his chances. He hadn't felt this sure in his passing since the first time he took the test. The dozens, if not hundreds, of failed attempts were mostly him performing trial and error. This time though- this time, he would definitely become a Genin.

After his little training session with the Hokage, the boy had spent as much time as he could reading through the material he knew was important for the written test. There was a side effect to the Shadow Clones that Hiruzen had told him about. Whatever they experienced, he would too. It was extremely useful as a scouting technique, but Naruto knew how he would use it.

He went back to his apartment and cleaned up, with the help of about a dozen other versions of him. Once it was clean, he made sure to create a new save point that would overwrite his previous one. It was only a difference of a couple hours, so it's not like he'd lose very much if he needed to reload. Immediately after that, his Clones and himself set about the task of combing through the books he'd been using to study for the Exam.

If he was going to finally pass this test, Naruto wanted to make sure he did as perfect a job as he could. Even as he answered everything on the written portion of the Exam, he couldn't help the grin that formed on his lips. The Shadow Clones had helped him study much more quickly than he was used to. They really were basically like cheating.

The biggest issue with the Written Portion was that it wasn't multiple choice. Every single one of the questions required a written response, with better and more complete answers receiving more points. To get a much higher score than he was used to he didn't just have to get it right, he had to explain _why _it was right.

Of course, if it had been multiple choice he'd just save right before he took it and keep reloading until he figured out exactly what the answers were. He was kind of thankful that it wasn't, though. Surprisingly, he was actually really learning and remembering the things that he read now that there was a direct objective for him to surpass. After his Shadow Clone studying, he even found a couple of chakra control exercises that might help him in the future.

When he handed his test in to Iruka, he absolutely knew that he'd done much better than usual. That confidence, pretty easily, carried over into the shurikenjutsu exam. He didn't score perfect marks, but he did better than almost everyone but Sasuke. He wasn't aiming for perfection, but he wanted everyone to see just how far he'd come.

Then came the spar with Mizuki. This was a case of having to stay in the ring for at least one minute, with longer times translating to better scoring. He managed to, thanks to all his experience fighting him, stay in for a whole two minutes and sixteen seconds! It was the longest he'd ever done, even if he fell behind both Sasuke and Kiba.

He wasn't at the top even after all his training, after all the times he'd taken this exam. That just meant that he had more work to do though. _I'll show all of them how great I am! I'll definitely become the Hokage. _The old him might've shouted that out loud, but he needed to focus. The most important part of the exam was coming up soon. He'd really put himself to work on this last night. While his Clones studied, he practiced.

"Alright, Naruto. I'm actually really surprised." Iruka began with a smile. "I didn't think you'd take any of this seriously, but you've really done an excellent job in every part of the Exam. I guess you really were spending a lot of time preparing."

"That's right, Iruka-sensei!" He replied with a grin. "And I'm ready for this one too! I even got jiji to help me with the Clone so I could be sure I wouldn't mess it up this time!" Iruka nodded.

"Ah, yes. Hokage-sama told me he gave you a bit of advice on what to do. Well, let's save that for last, alright? If you wouldn't mind, go ahead and use the Transformation." With a handseal and a shout, Naruto was replaced by Hiruzen Sarutobi. The teacher nodded and marked some notes down on his clipboard.

"Alright, and how about the Substitution?" Iruka pointed to a log that was set up in the ninjutsu examination room with his pencil. After releasing the Transformation, Naruto switched locations with the log. Using it again, he was back in front of his teacher. "Tremendous. Now, let's see you make two Clones." Naruto nodded.

Taking a deep breath, he focused on making sure he didn't make too many. If he overshot it, Iruka might take points away and this is the one time he wanted to get full marks. He crossed his hands in the already familiar seal.

Iruka couldn't help but adopt a look of confusion. That wasn't the Clone Jutsu's handseal. Lord Third had said he helped Naruto though, so perhaps it was simply a variant that would be easier for the blonde. "**Shadow Clone Jutsu!" **Naruto announced as two Clones popped into existence behind him. Looking at them, Iruka couldn't actually see any difference between them and his student.

"Shadow Clones, huh? That sounds kind of familiar." He couldn't really place the name though. "Is this what the Hokage taught you?" Spikes swayed as the Uzumaki nodded vigorously. "Are they any different to regular Clones?"

"They're super awesome, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto explained. He was about to tell the man everything about them before he remembered that jiji said he shouldn't say how they work to anyone. Right! It's supposed to be a super-secret Hokage ninjutsu! "Jiji said I can't really explain them to other people, but I bet it's okay to tell you that they're solid!" To prove his point, Naruto hit one of them and watched it explode.

If it wasn't for the loud _pop _it made when he did so, he might've heard Iruka's pencil hit the floor. As it stood, he noticed neither that nor the man picking it back up. Quickly dispelling his other Clone with a thought, he turned to him. "Did I pass then?"

Coughing into his fist, Iruka wrote something else down on his clipboard before nodding. "Yes, you did." Behind the man was a table that contained several headbands adorned with steel plates denoting Konoha's famous symbol. Turning to the boy, he handed him a blue one. "Starting today you, Naruto Uzumaki, are now a Genin-level shinobi of Konohagakure. Please report to the Hokage Tower tomorrow at 8 AM for your identification card to be processed. Next Monday - 10 days from now - report back to class for the last time to be assigned your team."

Grinning wide, Naruto rushed forward and hugged the man. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei!" He had finally done it! After so long, he was finally a shinobi! Letting go of his teacher, he took the headband and tied it around his forehead, taking off his goggles first.

"Achievement Earned: **[First Step] **for passing the Genin Examination. System Unlocked: **[Basic HUD]**." Time stopped again. Once more, Naruto was face-to-face with System. "Would you like to begin the tutorial?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, so absolutely!" Naruto replied quite readily. System's eyes glowed for a moment before she nodded.

"The Basic HUD is the foundational feature of your interaction with features. It includes your pause menu, health bar and chakra bar. Other features will be added to the HUD as they are unlocked. I shall start the explanation with your bars." With a single clap, Naruto suddenly found that the lower right part of his vision was obscured by two rectangles, one red and the other blue.

"The top bar you see is your HP. This is a quantification of how much damage you can take prior to death. If it reaches 0, you will be sent back to your previous save point. Any achievements you earn upon death will also need to be re-obtained if you load in prior to earning them.

"The bar below that is a measure of your chakra capacity. As you use chakra for various things, it will decrease. If it hits 0 you will be inflicted with **[Chakra Exhaustion]**. This will severely inhibit your ability to move while your body attempts to use your Health to increase Chakra regeneration. If your Health is too low to allow for this, then you may receive a game over and be forced to reload into your last save. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I think so." The blonde replied. "Don't let the bars go empty or bad things happen. I'll do my best. What's this about a pause menu?" System was still again as her eyes shone a bit.

"The pause menu has been unlocked. Whenever you pause, from now on, it will be accompanied with a small menu. Please turn your left hand palm up." Naruto followed her instructions and was surprised to see another one of those solid light boxes above his hand.

"As you can see, currently your options are **[Save]**, **[Load]** and **[Resume]**. These are mostly self-explanatory. Save will allow you to either fill an empty save slot or overwrite an existing one. Load will allow you to transport into one of your filled save files. Resume will replace the '_Unpause'_ command. This concludes the **[Basic HUD] **tutorial."

System disappeared, but time was still paused. Naruto decided it would be best to save into his only slot before unpausing. He didn't want to have to go through the Exam again, after all.

**[The Next Day, Training Ground 32]**

All in all, Naruto had been impatient for the first time in… well, he didn't know how long. He was glad to finally be a genin, but it really felt like taking his photo for his shinobi identification was taking too long. After he'd gotten his headband, he'd gone home and done some more studying – with his Shadow Clones, obviously – into chakra control exercises.

Between what jiji had told him about him lacking chakra control, and the System's original message that chakra control was one of the few things that would remain whenever he reloaded, he felt it might be a good idea to train it over this next week. Of course, he had to get through that terribly long line of new genin for his picture, first.

After he had received his ID card and warnings not to lose it, Naruto had traveled to the first empty training ground he could find. It was pretty spacious at the center, with layers of trees around the main grove. He wasn't trying to be secretive, per se, but he did need the trees. There was a really useful technique he found in one of his books that he wanted to get a handle on.

Standing in front of an oak that seemed to stretch up to Heaven, Naruto took a deep breath. Placing one foot on the tree, he channeled chakra into it. A large grin formed when he felt it stick to the bark. Lifting his other foot up, he placed it a little higher. According to what he'd read, this next part was the most tricky. If he didn't get the balance of chakra right, he might explode right off the side of the tree.

That's exactly what happened.

"Ouch… that really hurts." The blonde complained from the floor as he lay on his back. Sitting up, he rubbed his head a bit to relieve the pain. He would definitely make sure he figured this out though. The thought of having to go through that picture line a second time made the boy shudder, so he quickly saved after the pain went away.

He then jumped to his feet. _What did I do wrong? _There wasn't any sensei or jiji to help him here. He wanted to do this on his own to surprise everyone. He knew this wasn't part of the Academy curriculum, so it would be a good way to show whoever his Jounin-sensei was that he was definitely Hokage material.

Creating a Shadow Clone, he looked at it. "Hey, go ahead and try the tree walking thing." He told it. "I wanna see if I can tell when I messed up." The Clone looked at him, then the tree, then back to him.

"Boss, I don't wanna explode!" The Clone argued. "I'm so new to life, I've only just been born! I'm too young to die!"

"Just do it!" The original screamed back. The Clone sighed and looked at the tree. It did the same thing he did. One foot planted, then the other. The blonde was watching really carefully and noticed that it exploded off the tree when the Clone lifted its foot. As soon as the chakra explosion happened, the familiar sense of the Clone's memory hitting him happened.

The Clone also noticed when it was doomed. He could almost feel the exact way that the Clone had manipulated its chakra and how its chakra began to lose control as it thought about dying. This had Naruto sitting down to think.

_That's weird. Jiji said that they would pass on their knowledge. Did he mean that their emotions were part of that? The way their chakra moved? Actually, now that I think about it, the fact that System mentioned Chakra Control is a bit weird, isn't it?_

Was it possible that his reload worked kind of like Shadow Clones? Maybe when he saved, he was actually making a Shadow Clone that traveled into the future and loading caused it to disperse. Clearly, whatever he transferred using his Clones also transferred over when he loaded. But did it also work the other way around?

_Am I a Time-Shadow Clone? _The thought hit Naruto hard and caused him to swallow. After a moment, he relaxed. No, that couldn't be it. When he exploded backwards, he'd felt pain. When the Shadow Clone exploded backwards, it erupted into a cloud of smoke. He was still Naruto.

Shaking his head, he decided he wanted to test it out though. If it turned out that he was wrong, he could always reload back to his new save point and do the week over again, after all. So, with that in mind, Naruto formed the proper seal and summoned a hundred Shadow Clones. There was much more room here than in his bedroom, so it was alright.

"I gotta test out how awesome you guys really are." Naruto explained to them. "I wanna see if your chakra control actually passes on to me. If it really does, then you guys are basically the best jutsu ever!" His grin seemed to pass on to them. "So, pick a tree and see if you can climb it with chakra."

**[][][]**

As it turned out, the Clones really did function in much the same way as his ability to save and load. He had them working all day and with tremendous progress. It turned out that one Clone's progress didn't just hop to him, but to all of the current and future Clones. When half of his Clones exploded in much the same way the first one had, he was flooded with information about the exact ways that they had messed up.

Truth be told, the sudden influx of information from a few dozen Clones at once was headache-inducing. It took a moment for him to get his bearings and figure out exactly what had happened. The rest of his Clones then exploded off their trees as the influx had them lose concentration, so he had to go through it all over again.

It was really useful though. If the Clones also got the memories, that would make this whole thing much easier, after all. He made over a hundred more and had them split into twelve groups of twelve. This way, a dozen could try at a time and everyone else would be able to figure out what went wrong both as an observer and as the person who exploded.

Each time a group failed, he'd make another dozen and send them to the back of the line. Doing it this way, he was able to get a whole lot more work done much more quickly. After only an hour of this, his Clones were successfully moving halfway up the trees. Two hours and they could walk all the way to the top. Three hours and they could walk up and down. He even had them start training on walking around the trunk, jumping and landing vertically, and seeing how well they could throw their cloned versions of his shuriken at targets.

Finally, at an hour before dawn, Naruto decided to try a couple of things. He dispersed his Shadow Clones and looked up at one of the trees. With much more confidence than he probably should've had, he planted his foot on the trunk. His other followed shortly thereafter. He then took a step. He took another. This continued on until he was at the very top of the tree. It really worked!

It kind of felt like cheating. Honestly though, it's not like he was above that. His ability to save and load already put him in that territory. Plus, he was a ninja! Ninja were above the rules! They were sneaky. They were crafty. They were supposed to do their best to get powerful under the noses of everyone. Clones just made his saving and loading more efficient, that's all.

With that in mind, he began to walk back down the tree at a sedate pace. He still had nine more days to go until he met his sensei and found out who his team was. What else could he do in that time to impress them? None of his books had any really flashy ninjutsu. At this point though… did he care?

Honestly, being able to walk up trees and walls just seemed so cool. If he ever got into a fight inside, he would have so many more options for how he attacked! That wasn't even taking into account his Clones either. He couldn't help the enormous grin on his face as all the possibilities began to float around in his head.

What could he possibly do next though? He didn't recall anything else in his books that might be doable without a teacher.

His thoughts then turned to his conversation with the Hokage a couple days ago. His jiji had laid out, in some detail, several things that Clones could be used for. Would it be possible for him to figure those out with a similar type of training? He didn't really know how to go about doing something like forcing a Clone to explode with the force of a tag. Cloning inanimate objects sounded like it just required a lot of control.

Perhaps there was something else that he could do? Jiji _did _say that each user of the Shadow Clone had done something new with it to make it better. He was _expecting_ Naruto to do the same. There had to be something he could do with a week and a half of time, right? He would sure as hell make his best effort to try!

**[][][]**

The day that Naruto had been waiting for finally came. He had been training essentially non-stop since learning how to surface cling – that's what it was called in the book. Most of his time was spent trying to experiment with the Clones and figure out everything about them. Even if the first day had been the most illuminating, it wasn't the only time he picked things up.

For one, he found out that his accuracy didn't actually get any better when he had his Clones training in shurikenjutsu. No matter how many of them he had at it, it didn't make him much, if any, better. He chalked it up to being one of those physical things that didn't transfer over Clones or reloads. As he understood it, he'd have to train anything to do with his body on his own.

Then there was the fact that his Clones were actually extremely easy to use the Replacement with. They were even easier to use than logs. When he asked one of his Clones, they responded the same way. He'd just need to figure out what the best possible use of that was, though. Surely being able to change places with his Clones would be useful.

The last big thing he figured out was an interesting aspect to the Transformation. He thought that a Clone made while he Transformed might look like his Transformation, but it wasn't the case. They came out looking just like him unless he focused on using both the Shadow Clone and Transformation Jutsu at the same time.

Overall, he felt like it was a really productive week with enormous amounts of progress. He was ready to get his team assignment and was eagerly awaiting the meet-up with his Jounin sensei. When Iruka went before the class to begin calling out the teams, he was paying rapt attention. That attention might've been better directed elsewhere when the Chuunin was forced to scream at the children to quiet them, though. With as many headaches as his Clones had given him this last week though, he felt like he wasn't as affected as he might otherwise be.

Iruka coughed into his hand as silence fell over the room. Strangely, Mizuki was missing. Before he could actually begin, Ino spoke up. "Iruka-sensei, where's Mizuki-sensei? Is he not coming today?" He didn't reply for a moment, and seemed to be hesitating. "Iruka-sensei?"

"I may as well tell you now." He replied. "Last night, Mizuki-sensei was found trying to break in to the Hokage's room. He was attempting to retrieve a particular object, a scroll of forbidden jutsu. Of course, the ANBU in the room incapacitated him until Lord Third arrived. Mizuki-sensei was interrogated and revealed that he was a spy working for Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, an S-rank missing-nin."

Naruto tried to remember why the name was familiar. He was… one of jiji's students, right? He was trying to become the Hokage, but Minato Namikaze got the position instead. _He left the village after…uh, he was experimenting on kids, wasn't he? I think that sounds right. Mizuki-sensei was working for a guy like that?_

"Given all of that, the Hokage ordered his execution for treason against the village. It won't take place until the Torture and Interrogation Department feel like they've got as much information about Orochimaru out of him as they can though. This is the reality of what shinobi are. I've known Mizuki for years and I never realized that our friendship was fake."

For a moment, Naruto thought that Iruka eyes looked a bit wet, but then the man shook his head and whatever he thought he saw was gone. "Let us not dwell on those who wish to see our village fall though. Today should be a happy day for you all. Today you graduate, formally, and receive the rank of Genin. Today, I am no longer your sensei, but your senpai. I am proud to look out upon my former class with that knowledge that you will be great shinobi."

With a soft smile, he picked up a clipboard from his desk and cleared his throat. "With that in mind, let me go over the Genin team placements. Starting with Team 1…" As Iruka went over the teams, Naruto couldn't help but get lost in thought.

_I can't believe that Mizuki-sensei was really a spy. He was always nicer to me than a lot of the other teachers. Who else might be a spy? How would I even be able to tell? I really need to get strong. If Mizuki had tried to kill me, then there's no way I could've survived. I mean, I could've just loaded back and trained really hard, but that's not the point! I need to get strong enough that spies won't be able to trick me. Yeah, that's it! That's what I'll do!_

With a new goal in mind, Naruto focused on the class once more. That was when he noticed that time had paused. He didn't cause it to happen though, so he was confused. Looking around, he noticed that System was in the aisle, standing next to him, looking down. "What's going on, System?" Her eyes lit up a moment before she responded.

"You have reached a potential Point of Divergence. These are events which have the capacity to radically change the path that you set out upon. In this case, the composition of not only your team, but that of several of your classmates, will have enormous repercussions in the years to come. I am here to offer you a choice.

"You may allow the natural course of events to play out. Alternatively, you may also allow three teams to be randomly generated. There is no telling what will happen if you allow the latter, so you will receive a reward if you decide to go about it. No matter your choice here, it will remain even if you were to save now and continue to reload. For instance, if you were to save, then randomize and reload it would not matter. The teams would not randomize a second time and would, in fact, simply stay the same."

"What sort of reward?" Naruto wondered. System didn't respond, but a menu popped up.

**Point of Divergence reached.**

**Option A: Allow events to run naturally.**

**Option B: Allow the System to re-roll team composition. Reward: [Focused Mind].**

**[Focused Mind]: A skill that allows the user to calm their emotions and stay focused on the task at hand. While in use, it grants enormous bonuses to emotional and psychological maluses such as Killer Intent and psychotic breaks.**

Given how very not calm Naruto was right now because of learning Mizuki was a spy, the blonde felt like having something like that could be a good idea. System would give him a tutorial about it before time unpaused, so he pressed Option B.

"Active Skill acquired. Would you like to begin the tutorial?" System asked. Naruto nodded, which was all the signal she needed. "Active Skills are an aspect of the System which can be utilized in many ways. They generally require an input, which can be verbal, mental or physical, and have a cooldown time.

"**[Focused Mind] **can be activated by thinking about the command activating, saying the name of the skill or pressing the associated hotkey, when that part of the User Interface is unlocked. It will consume chakra proportional to the emotions it must neutralize to calm down the user. In severe and extreme emotionally charged states, it may even drain all of the user's chakra, so be careful. There is no cooldown time for Focused Mind, but it can only be activated again once it has finished working on your emotional state, in order to prevent potential psychological damage."

With that, she disappeared and left Naruto in the paused state of his classroom. Deciding he wanted to try it out, he thought about becoming calm and was surprised when his worries about Mizuki began to disappear. He was still thinking about Mizuki and about spies, but he didn't feel afraid anymore. A smile began to form on his lips. This would be really useful whenever he heard the whispers of the villagers or felt a bit lonely.

Shaking his head, he focused on Iruka. Saving his progress, more out of habit than anything else, he unpaused time and was ready. "Team 7, under Jounin-sensei Kakashi Hatake, will be Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka and Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto could hear Sakura's high-pitched squeal and Kiba's exasperated groan from different ends of the classroom at the same time. It was soon followed by Sakura and Ino fighting. It was probably because of his new skill still being active, but he couldn't help but wonder how those two girls could fight at a time like this.

"Team 8, under Jounin-sensei Kurenai Yuuhi, will be Shino Aburame, Ino Yamanaka and Naruto Uzumaki." This time, Ino was the one groaning. He ignored his fellow blonde for a moment as he tried to remember who Shino was. His eyes glanced around the room until they fell upon a boy in a high-collared jacket and a pair of shades that were looking back at him. He'd never really had any interactions with Shino, now that he thought about it. That automatically put him much higher in his opinion than Ino though, considering all his interactions with her had been insults and bullying.

"Given that Team 9 is still in active duty, Team 10, under Jounin-sensei Asuma Sarutobi, will be Chouji Akimichi, Hinata Hyuuga and Shikamaru Nara." The last bit of what Iruka said went over Naruto's head for the most part. He was trying to think if he had ever heard the name of his sensei. Unfortunately, he hadn't. Asuma was someone related to the Hokage. Kakashi was… well, he vaguely remembered his name from something in his textbooks that he'd studied for the test. Kurenai didn't ring any bells though.

His attention finally turned back to reality in time for him to hear someone calling for Team 8. Looking towards the front of class, he noted that it was a raven-haired woman with bright, red eyes in a strange dress that looked like it was made from bandages. When he saw Ino and Shino stand up, it tipped him off that she must be Kurenai-sensei.

After some time following after her, the three found themselves on the Academy's rooftop. The children sat on the roof's ledge while she stood. With a smile, she began. "I am Kurenai Yuuhi, your new Jounin-sensei. I thought that we might get better acquainted today before we start our training tomorrow." She looked at her team, two of whom seemed quite enthused.

"You're really pretty, sensei!" Ino started. "I can't ever seem to get my hair to do anything but this ponytail. How do you get it to curl like that?" Kurenai's smiled slipped a bit as she looked at Ino, but she recovered it after a moment. She was prepared for this. The Hokage had already informed her of the Uchiha boy's… fan-club. If the Yamanaka heir was kept separate from him, it should hopefully cure her of her near-obsession.

"That's quite a boring subject." Kurenai replied. "I think it would be much more interesting to find out exactly what you three want out of your shinobi career. I can only help guide you there if I know what you want, first." Looking between her students, she gestured towards Shino. "Why don't you start us off."

Shino was silent, as usual, but finally spoke up. "I am Shino Aburame, heir to my clan. My ambitions are to lead them to greatness when I succeed my father and to fight someone strong." Kurenai continued looking at him, which made him think. "If it is more about me you wish to know, I will oblige. What is it that you would like?"

Kurenai sighed. Aburame were always like this. She should've known to be more direct. "Perhaps you could tell us some of your hobbies, your likes, dislikes… things of that nature?" Shino nodded once as he gave it some thought.

"Alright sensei, I think I understand. In terms of the things I like, I would count tending to my hive and reading amongst them. I have quite a distaste for strong-smelling foods. My hobbies are collecting and studying new bugs." Ino had a look of disgust on her face as she scooted away from Shino and towards Naruto. Meanwhile, Naruto just seemed very curious.

"What do you mean, hive?" He wondered. Kurenai simply watched on, hoping that the other blonde wouldn't be so… abrasive towards his teammate. After a moment, little beetles began to climb out of Shino's jacket around his collar and sleeves.

"My clan specializes in utilizing a special type of insect in combat, our kikaichu." He explained in his monotone. "They inhabit my body and feed off of my chakra. In exchange, they follow my orders in combat. They do not require food or water, and sustain on chakra alone. If a swarm of them attacks an enemy, then they can easily drain them of their chakra network in moments."

Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect. "That sounds really cool!" Shino was surprised at the reaction. "You said you wanted to fight someone strong right? Well, I'm going to be the Hokage one day, so I bet I count!" Kurenai smiled at the interaction, which got Naruto's attention. "You're not about to laugh at me too, are you sensei?" The ravenette put her hands up in defense.

She had seen reports of the… treatment he'd received, both from adults and the other children. The Hokage had been quite clear on how important Naruto was to the village, and to himself. "Of course not, Naruto-kun." Kurenai replied. "Even if you've not done terribly well in the Academy itself, you did very well on your Graduation Exam. Why don't you go next though?"

Naruto lost the glint of suspicion in his eyes and nodded. "Sure thing! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage-in-training!" He paused a moment to think about what he was going to say. Shino was so serious and focused with his answers. Quickly activating his new skill, Naruto grinned. "I love training and learning about cool things I can try. I really hate people don't think I have what it takes to succeed Jiji. My hobbies are… well, all I've been doing recently is a lot of chakra control training. I really need it though, because the Hokage needs to be the strongest in the village so he can protect everyone here." _Especially with people like Mizuki-sensei._

Kurenai nodded and turned towards Ino. She glanced at her two teammates before nodding. "I'm Ino, heiress to the Yamanaka Clan. I like… hm… honestly, I really love shopping and flowers. I dislike sashimi and that billboard brow trying to steal my Sasuke-kun away." After some mild grumbling, she perked up. "My hobbies are growing flowers for my family's shop and shopping! I guess… well, I don't really know what I want to do as a shinobi. I just sort of felt like I was supposed to become one since I'm the only heiress. I want to make my daddy proud though. So, I'll become really strong and lead the Yamanaka to greatness!"

Kurenai nodded. "As I already said, my name is Kurenai Yuuhi. I will be your Jounin-sensei. If I'm going to be honest, what I most enjoy is having a strong drink in the evening after a long day. I have quite the distaste for perverts, but I'm sure that won't be a problem with you three. I am already regarded as our village's resident genjutsu mistress, but I would someday like to surpass even the greatest genjutsu master of our village, Itachi Uchiha.

"Despite my specialization being genjutsu though, I am more than capable of helping each of you three in whatever skills you need. If I am not, then I'm sure I can find someone who is willing, ready and able to assist. I will mold you three into a truly spectacular team, assuming you can prove yourselves to me. I would like for you to meet me at Training Ground 8 at 8 AM for our first exercise. Before I am convinced that you three are ready to become Genin in your own right, I will require something of you. I will see you then."

With that, Kurenai disappeared into a swirl of dust and leaves, abandoning her prospective students to their thoughts and to each other.

**And that's it!**

**Before I get the questions: yes, I did actually do some RNG to get the team composition. I chose the sensei, but the Genin combinations themselves was all in the dice.**

**Anywho! Make sure to let me know what you thought. As always, this can be done in a review, via PM or over on my server at discord-dot-gg-slash-PWDD44v**

**I have a pat reon now as well! pat reon -dot- com -slash- orpheuskidwell**

**Orpheus out! Ja ne!**


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